The Future of Business | Ahmad Ashkar | TEDxGeorgetown
## Speaker Context - Speaker identity: Founder of Falafel Inc. - Audience, setting, occasion of the talk: Audience at an event, discussing the future of business. - Any framing the speaker establishes for themselves up front: He is going to talk about why impact is changing everything we know or used to know about business. ## People - Pedro: Mentioned in relation to setting up the speaker's talk. - Wyclef: A student who was at the Hult Prize and is in the front row. - President Bill Clinton: Mentioned in the context of a past Hult Prize event. - A team out of Rutgers University for Muslim Americans from Rutgers: Won the Hult Prize by creating a point-to-point ride-sharing system. - Paul Paul Manzano: Advisory board member, judge for the Hult Prize, and CEO of Unilever. ## Organizations - Hult Prize: A platform founded by the speaker about a decade ago; gives students a risk-free platform to do things; runs thematic challenges every year. - Falafel Inc: A business founded by the speaker; puts them "on the map" and got the speaker to Georgetown; is a business model that validates the future of business. - United Nations Development Program: The speaker is on the board of this organization. - Rutgers University for Muslim Americans from Rutgers: A team that won a Hult Prize. - World Food Program: A contract signed with Falafel Inc that they must fulfill. - Spire Food Group: A company mentioned that is the largest manufacturer of insects as a human consumable. - Food for Good Foundation: Launched by the speaker to encourage other restaurants, pubs, and publicly traded companies to join the food for movement. ## Places - Georgetown: Where the speaker was possibly invited due to founding Falafel Inc. - Middle East: Region where the speaker has been recognized by publications. - Kenya: Location where Whyclefts company is increasing economic opportunities. - Washington DC and New York: Locations the speaker is commuting between for fundraising. ## Tools, Tech & Products - Whyclefts company: A company formed as a response to the Whole Prize challenge; is today one of Africa's largest transportation companies; uses technology to connect people in rural to people in urban. - Point-to-point ride-sharing system: System created by a team from Rutgers University. - Soluble powder: Product created by Spire Food Group, colorless, made from crickets, that can be added to anything. - Pita: Street food item mentioned in relation to the speaker's family history. ## Concepts & Definitions - Movement building: What the speaker is talking about in relation to the future of business. - Impact: A concept central to the speaker's talk; changing what we know about business. - Whole Prize: The world's largest program that gives students college students around the world a risk-free platform to do things. - Social innovation premium: The idea that achieving impact validates the future of business. - Shared value economy: The concept the speaker feels he belongs to, contrasted with focusing solely on wealth. - Impact centered: A characteristic of future businesses meaning every decision yields net impact (hiring, spending, research, product, service). - Profit minded: A characteristic of future businesses meaning they are not dependent on charity, but have business models attached to them. - Market driven: A characteristic of future businesses meaning they solve a market-based challenge. - Pedigree: The third concept presented as something people were pursuing for social status/inclusion, but which is surpassed by impact. ## Numbers & Data - Ten years: Time period the speaker spent in impact work/career since founding the Hult Prize. - 50 million dollars: Amount invested in Falafel Inc. - 100,000: Number of participants at the Whole Prize every year. - 2016: Year the speaker mentions receiving the Hult Prize winner. - 2012: Year the speaker was recognized as one of the top five ideas changing the world. - One year ago: Time when the speaker realized the importance of impact regarding the 2012 recognition. - Six months ago: Time when Falafel Inc. was established. - 35,000: Number of refugees Falafel Inc. has fed. - 100: Minimum number of stores Falafel Inc. has secured backing to open around the world. - Five million: Number of refugees Falafel Inc. will be feeding a year after opening 100 stores. - Ten: Number of employees per store at Falafel Inc. - 2060: Year by which 60 trillion dollars will be transferred. - Sixty trillion dollars: Amount of wealth to be transferred from parents/grandparents to Millennials by 2060. - Five trillion: Amount of wealth transferred by 2022. - Eight out of ten: Percentage of Millennials who choose brands they can associate impact with. - Sixty percent: Percentage of Millennials who pay a premium for impact-associated goods. - 82: Year the speaker was born, placing him at the tail end of the millennial generation. - 23: Age of Pedro mentioned. - 2000: Year the speaker graduated high school. - Five: Age the speaker was when they had no education in medicine. - March 6, 2009: Date of the financial market crash the speaker references. - 6200: Points level on the Dow Jones Industrial Average during the crash. - Three times: How much bigger the speaker's pipeline was than his portfolio of over three billion dollars before the crash. - 50: Number of people laid off by the speaker overnight. - 2009 in 2010: Period when social media platforms like Snapchat and Facebook began. - 2013: Year of the Hult Prize winner Spire Food Group mentioned. - Twenty-one over twenty five hundred: Ratio of water used to produce cricket protein (gallons per pound). - One pound: Unit of protein comparison. - Two, five hundred: Gallons of water needed to produce one pound of cricket protein. - Five years: Time frame set for the challenge to transform the lives and restore the rights and dignity of ten million refugees. ## Claims & Theses - The future of business is all about movements. - Impact is changing everything we know or used to know about business. - The idea of social innovation premium is true. - Maximizing shareholder wealth can be achieved by achieving impact. - Millennials make decisions differently than every single generation before them. - The lines between social entrepreneurship versus regular entrepreneurship are no longer black and white; they are coming together as one. - The business of impact is an eight trillion dollar industry today. - By 2060, sixty trillion dollars will be transferred from our parents and grandparents generation to Millennials. - The future of business must be impact centered, profit minded, and market driven. - The only currency that can remit is money. - We have a contract with the World Food Program that they can take us to court over if we don't fulfill our end of the obligation. ## Mechanisms & Processes - The process of the Hult Prize challenge: Young people without necessarily having an idea come together as a team and try to solve a challenge set every single year. - The process of Falafel Inc.: Created after a refugee challenge at the Hult Prize; designed to transform the lives and restore the rights and dignity of ten million refugees in five years. - The process for building a future business: Must be impact centered (every decision yields net impact), profit minded (must have business models attached), and market driven (solving a market-based challenge). ## Timeline & Events - About a decade ago: When the speaker founded the Hult Prize. - 2012: When the speaker was recognized as one of the top five ideas changing the world. - About a year ago: When the speaker realized the importance of impact regarding the 2012 recognition. - Six months ago: When Falafel Inc. was created. - From 2000: Year the speaker graduated high school. - March 6, 2009: Date of the financial market crash the speaker references. ## Examples & Cases - Little brown three cents to make falafel balls: What puts you on the map and gets you to Georgetown. - Whyclefts company: Started as a response to the Whole Prize challenge in 2016; is now one of Africa's largest transportation companies and won a contract to be the official ticketing agent connecting people in rural to people in urban in all of Kenya. - Past year's Hult Prize winner: Focused on refugees and was a team from Rutgers University for Muslim Americans from Rutgers that created a point-to-point ride-sharing system. - Falafel Inc.: A business model validating the future of business, feeding over 35,000 refugees and employing refugees full-time, and securing backing for 100 stores. - Spire Food Group: A company that is the largest manufacturer of insects as a human consumable; started as an entry into the Whole Prize; provides an equivalent like-for-like product in terms of protein by using crickets. ## Trade-offs & Alternatives - Choosing between making the most amount of money versus making Mom proud (social success). - Passing through the path of pedigree (e.g., Harvard, Georgetown) versus pursuing impact. - Building a business that depends on charity versus building a business with business models attached so that by simply existing, revenue is generated. ## Counterarguments & Caveats - It is ironic that little brown three cents to make falafel balls is what puts you on the map and gets you to Georgetown. - The speaker admits he was not sure if he knew about "impact" until about a year ago. - The speaker mentions they are working on a potential vegan Shoreham product, but they will go into that next year. - The speaker advises not to sell yourself short or create subpar products and services. ## Methodology - The speaker used analyzing data (Hult Prize data plus Nielsen Global Research) to prove a point. - Falafel Inc.'s approach to product design: Figuring out the three characteristics people look for in food (affordable, has impact, good). ## References Cited - TEDx talk (implied reference point for the slide). - Book: "The Pursuit of Impact" by the speaker. - The Hult Prize. ## Conclusions & Recommendations - The future of business is impact centered, profit minded, and market driven. - If you want to be relevant in the next decade, look at the data (sixty trillion dollars wealth transfer and Millennial buying behavior). - Do not sell yourself short; do not create subpar products and services. - The hashtags for Falafel Inc. is "eat with dignity." - The Food for Good Foundation is launched to encourage others to join the food for movement. - The future of business is real, it's impact centered, profit minded, and market driven. ## Implications & Consequences - If millennials are controlling the money, the people controlling the money will be in charge. - If the business of impact continues to grow, the refugee crisis could disappear if enough brands like Falafel Inc. existed. ## Open Questions - What is the absolute best way to create a product that maximizes impact while generating revenue? ## Verbatim Moments - "little brown three cents to make falafel balls is what puts you on the map and get you to Georgetown." - "The pursuit of impact." - "the lines are no longer black and white they're coming together as one." - "the idea of social innovation premium is true." - "it's not literally selling a product taking a percentage of profits and donating it that's 1.0 it needs to be designed for impact." - "Our hashtag which is picked up around the world is eat with dignity." - "The future of business is real its impact centered profit minded and market driven"